Heike Weber – Interview

By Daniel Rolnik On May 23, 2011

Interview with Heike Weber

Heike Weber designs and builds incredible installation pieces out of innovative materials specifically for wonderful spaces all across the world

Daniel Rolnik: Why don’t you like capital letters?

Heidi Weber: I don’t understand this question?????? Sorry! SORRY!

DR: Haha, where did you get all the carpet for “multiversum” and how much of it was random vs. planned out?

HW: The carpet-drawing “multiversum” was planned out rigorously for the MARTa Museum in Herford, Germany designed by Frank Gehry. No such thing as random exists! I scanned rubber rings and created the drawings for the space on the computer. The carpet, all 260 square meters of it, was given to us by Vorwerk, the well-known carpet company.

DR: How long does it take you to cut out one of your silicone rugs and what do you do when people accidentally try step on them?

HW: The silicone rugs are not cut, they are drawings directly gunned out of a silicone cartouche. The time it takes to draw each rug depends on the size. For the biggest one, 11m x 5 m, I needed three weeks to draw it and five days to lay it on the floor of the museum. It’s not allowed to be stepped on, because it’s a sculpture. If it happens, the staff has to clean the footsteps.

DR: How many sketches did you draft before you actually painted “Utopia”?

HW: I drew “Utopia” directly on the exhibition walls. I didn’t make sketches in advance because the drawing relates to the architecture. The only thing I did was I practiced the sophisticated line-drawing on the wall of my studio and tried out different markers.

DR: What’s your least favorite medium to work in and why?

HW: Carpet cutouts. I’m interested in finding the balance between a homely material and a composed drawing for a particular space. A carpet suggests coziness, but in the installation there are only thin lines of the carpet and people are scared to walk on it. So, it’s a conflict between what you expect from a room covered with carpet and what I do.

DR: What’s a dibond?

HW: Dibond is a brand name, it’s a composite material made of aluminum and cellular rubber, and a nice medium to laminate photographs onto.

DR: Who are some of your favorite German collectors?

HW: My work is mostly collected by museums like the Kunstmuseum Bonn in Germany, galleries, and some private collectors. I’m very proud that Irene Ludwig (Ludwig Collection) bought a huge installation for the Ludwig- Museum in Aachen, Germany.

DR: What’s an artistic technique you’ve really wanted to start experimenting with?

HW: That’s very simple…anything to do with paper. I experimented with mixing paper-cutouts with wall drawings for an All-Over-Structure.

DR: Where’s the best place to build a snowman?

HW: In a lush garden with a multiplicity of plants and blossoms, and the most important thing is to build it in the summertime And now, you ask – where did I get the snow??? It’s real snow that I bought from the indoor ski venue next to Düsseldorf. And, for the small snowman, I made the snow in my fridge’s freezerThe melting-process is documented and each snowmen dies very individually.

DR: What are you planning on unleashing in 2011?

HW: 2011 has already started! But next month, I will make a huge Utopia-Drawing that’s 600 square meters [approx. 6,000 Feet] for the entrance hall of the university-hospital in Düsseldorf. After that I’ve got a show planned in my Gallery Rasche Ripken in Berlin. I’m showcasing a big acrylic painting on the wall, a wallpaper, lasing cutouts made of aluminum and steal, a video of blowing bubbles, and paper cutouts. But it isn’t all done yet, it still dozes in my head.

Questions by: Daniel Rolnik
Answers by: Heike Weber